C'est La Vie
by Tend to Infinity
Summary: Aang, Toph, Sokka, Zuko and Katara attend high school in our world in the roughest area of a big city. Not giving away the pairings yet.
1. Introduction

C'est La Vie

Introduction

[SK]  
"Sokka!" a voice called up from downstairs. "Katara! You're going to be late for school!"

Sokka opened one eye slightly, peering around the room. His computer and posters looked like they were staring at him as the light peeked into his room from behind the curtains. He was wearing his usual pyjamas and was sprawled out over the bed with his bed hat hanging on his ear.

"I'm up dad!" Katara shouted back. "I've been up for about half an hour." There was a pause. "Haven't you got work?"

"Yeah," their dad called back upstairs. "But knowing Sokka, you wouldn't be able to get him up. I thought I'd spare you that anguish."

"Thanks," she called, giggling slightly.

"I can hear, you know," Sokka said, rolling off his bed and hitting the floor, hard. He usually did this when he couldn't wake up. He was having such a good dream anyway, he could fly! Flying was a dream of Sokka's and when he told Katara she explained to him that it meant that he felt like he was trapped.

Katara pushed his door open. When Sokka pulled over his curtains and looked over, he saw that she was already ready for school. "Seriously," he murmured, rubbing his eyes. "You're ready already?"

"Yes lazy butt," she scolded. "It's the first day at high school for me, I wanted to make a good impression."

"No point," Sokka said, thinking that he would get her back for the "lazy butt" comment. "High schools a rough place, they'll rip you to shreds."

"Unlikely," Katara replied, shaking her head. "I have a big brother to protect me," she mocked, putting a mocking emphasis on the big brother second. Katara didn't look at all phased.

"You're going to feel different at the end of the day," he informed her, standing and stretching his arms over his head and yawning loudly.

"Can I leave now then?" Their Dad shouted. "Is Sokka up?"

"Yeah, Dad," Sokka called. "See you when we get home!"

"Bye Dad," Katara returned. "Love you!"

After a couple of seconds, they heard the door shut and there dad get in the car. Sokka and Katara lived in the rougher side of the city. They didn't mind much, though they sometimes had to walk further to school to avoid the gangs. Their dad worked in a factory and they didn't have a mom, she had died six years ago. It was leukaemia (Katara, who wanted to be a doctor, knew it was Acute Differentiated Myeloid Leukaemia) and it had been dreadful for them, but they were just starting to get used to it.

"Didn't you set an alarm," Katara asked, after kicking some of Sokka's magazines under his wardrobe. "Or your phone, or something. Do you even care that it's the first day?"

"Nope, nope and nope," Sokka responded, waving her half shocked expression away. "Now, can I have a little privacy, I need to get dressed."

"We need to go in ten minutes Sokka," Katara reminded him and he shooed her out of the room. "I'll put some toast on for you."

"Thanks Katara," he said and shut the door.

Sokka did care that it was the first day of school and after he had heard that Katara was downstairs he sighed deeply. He hated school, he hated the work, he hated most of the school students, he hated P.E and homework. He really didn't go back and sometimes he wished he could sleep all the time. He felt sick when he thought that, it was wrong for him to wish his life away when his mother was taken from him when she was only thirty five.

Sokka pulled on his jeans, a blue top and a brown, full length jacket that he always wore (his dad gave it to him a few months ago and he hadn't parted with it. After lapsing into thought on the following day, he shut his door behind him and trudged downstairs, his hands in his pockets.

When he reached their modest kitchen he saw Katara buttering some toast. "Have you already eaten?" he asked, noticing only four slices of bread (which was how much he usually ate).

"Yeah, about an hour ago," she told him, not turning around.

Sokka, sensing what was really going on, walked up behind her and put his hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry about it sis, I was only joking earlier," he explained, trying to comfort her. "You're going to be fine, everyone is."

Katara hummed to herself for a moment. "Yeah, I suppose your right," she said, turning to him and smiling broadly. "Now," she said, passing him a plate of buttered toast, "eat, you have a long day ahead of you."

Sokka took the plate from her. As she walked away to grabbed her bag, he stopped her. "Here," he said, passing her a piece of toast. "It will ease your stomach."

"Thanks Sokka," Katara said, eating the toast quickly. Sokka never gave away food, so this was quite a big deal. They were good siblings, closer than most. The loss of their mother had pulled them together. They helped each other through the good and the bad and they helped their dad, who took the death worse than either of them, though he tried to be a man.

Katara opened the door and stepped outside, looking around the bustling streets of people rushing to work. She breathed in the polluted air and it didn't bother her, she was trying to take in the light that was shining down on her. The paths were crowded, as they always were and she looked into the sky, what could the day bring?

[A]

"Guatso," Aang complained. "Why the city?"

"Aang, be calm," Guatso comforted. "Your parents left their trade house to us and we couldn't afford the farm. You know that and I know it must be tough, but we're almost at your new school, just try and rough it out."

"I know," Aang said, leaning his head on the window. "I just wish there was something I could do to make it easier."

"You'll enjoy school," Guatso told him.

Aang had been home schooled out in the country by Guatso all of his life, having contact with some of the children of local famers, though not that often. He was far above his age in his knowledge, he always got top grades in the exams his dad made him sit. He was entering High school with straight A+s, he just picked things up quickly.

"You'll meet some new friends," Guatso explained.

"I don't miss my old friends," Aang lied.

Guatso just nodded and smiled, turning the corner after the light. Aang looked as the foreboding school stared at him. The building was spread over a huge space and four stories high, the central building being five stories. Aang looked at the students walking to street. The school, even at the paths, were divided. There were gangs of older teenagers laughing and smoking and spitting.

Aang looked over and saw Guatso raising an eyebrow, seeing the same thing that he saw. "You know what Aang?" he said, turning his attention forward again. "I'm now glad you dad taught you martial arts."

"Why?"

"No reason," Guatso chuckled.

Aang turned back to the window. Out of all of the students, only two took his eye. Out of those two, he truly only noticed one. There was a boy, he was quite tall, with his hair tied back in a short ponytail and a long brown jacked, and he had large headphones around his neck and was talking to the person beside, the one who Aang was really looking at.

Her hair was curly and dangled around her sides, by her shoulders. Even though they were driving quite fast, times seemed to go slowly as he looked upon her. She was wearing a blue, woollen jumper which went up her neck. Aang could see a necklace with a strange sign on it. She had slightly baggy jeans on and converse shoes. She must be a freshman, because her backpack was on tightly and she looked nervous.

As they drove in front of her she met Aang's eye. Aang smiled at her and she did the same, waving slightly. Time seemed to be going a little slow for Aang at the moment as the car pulled away. When he looked back at the school and how large it was, he realised he probably would never see her again. Heck, he had never seen anything so big, it looked like the White House.

Guatsu stopped at the roadside near the school. "Ok then, Aang," he said, unlocking the doors. "Have you got everything?"

"Yep."

"Bag?"

"Yep."

"Phone?"

"Yep?"

"Books?"

"Guatsu," Aang moaned, though there was an undercurrent of laughter to it. Surprisingly, Aang was not feeling as nervous as he was before. It must have been the smile from the girl he saw, it made him feel like the new school, the new life, was friendlier than he had given it credit for. "I'll see you later then," he said, opening the car door.

"Aang," Guatsu said, catching him on the shoulder before he got out. "Do be careful."

"I will," Aang said, smiling as he got out of the car and shut it behind him. Guatsu was Aang's grandfather and since his parents had died (when he was a baby) Guatsu had looked after him. Aang and Guatsu used to live on a farm, and they had for the first fourteen years of Aang's life. However, recently, there was a huge economic crash, and Guatsu had lost everything except the small apartment that they used sometimes to visit the city.

[T]

Toph was rare, incredibly rare. Her parents were too protective, they always had been. This stopped however, when their doctor let them know that Toph had a rare neurone deformity that meant that she could feel tiny vibrations and create a picture and find her way around. She was completely blind, born that way, but she never had any trouble seeing and that was difficult to explain to people.

"I'll walk to school, mum," Toph told her, pulling on a top and trousers, not knowing the colour or style. She didn't care what ever it was.

"No you wont," Toph's mom scolded. "You need to wear these clothes, anyway, you're wearing your pyjama bottoms!"

"Fine," Toph moaned, snatching the clothes out of her mom's hand.

"You're dads going to drive you, again.

"Can I walk tomorrow?" Toph asked. "I don't know why you're worried. I can see better than either of you, so I'm not going to get hit by a car and I'm fourteen, nobody's going to abduct me." She paused. "Hi dad," she said after a second.

Her dad had just stepped through the door behind her, evidently trying to sneak up to her. He stopped and shook his head. "It doesn't matter, Toph," her dad explained. "You can't be too careful."

Toph mumbled quietly to herself. "Oh and sweetie," Toph's mom said. "Maybe you could try and make some friends in the new school."

Toph had a history of being abrasive. She didn't like people and there problems, it had always infuriated her, and she told people to leave her alone whenever she had the chance. He parents hated that, they always wanted their precious little Toph to have friends, maybe be a cheerleader, but at least be a normal girl. Not a violent, abrasive prodigy. A prodigy she was, she was already doing the junior year at the school when she was fourteen, just starting when everyone else her age was a freshman.

"If you were nicer to people they'd give you a better time," Toph's dad informed her. They were in the car now, driving to Toph's new school. "Count yourself lucky, Toph."

"Why's that?" she asked. Her dad had never said she was lucky, even though most doctors she had met had told her she was a medical marvel, something that even the best doctors had never seen before. Had it not been for her, as her dad was a judge, she would be going to a top school. However, Toph had been expelled from three different schools for various reasons, and now she was going to an ordinary school.

"You only have to endure two years at this place," he explained. "Most kids have four."

"Yeah," she agreed, smiling, "I suppose that is an up side, however small."

Toph leaned her head out of the car window and shut her useless eyes. I wonder what this year will bring, she thought.

End of Chapter 1


	2. Chapter 1: We're Stuck in This Together

Chapter 1: We're stuck in this Together

Authors note: Thanks for the support I have received so far. Strangely enough, it says that there are no hits, but several people have added this story to their alert and favourite list. Speaking of which: thanks to all of the people below:

Blanc Corbeau

Flockroxz

Zukofan2005

Zutarababe

Thanks to all of you, I hope you enjoy chapter 1. Please drop me a review, I'd like to know what you think.

[K]

The playground was packed, kids in all directions leaning, chatting, listening into music, swearing and smoking. This was one of the times when Katara really hated living in this part of town; there were some truly terrifying and violent teenagers whose parents were imprisoned, dealers, pimps and wife beaters. Katara shuddered at the thought.

"Sokka, my man," a voice said behind them. Katara and Sokka turned to see one of their friends, "and Katara, who are you to, then?"

"Hello Jet," Sokka said. Jet was a tall and muscular friend of the family. He was wearing a grey shirt with a hand doing the devil horn sign, black baggy jeans and a long, leather, black, full length jacket. He had messy, brown hair that looked like Jet had been hit by lightning a few years back and he had left it alone. Jet had a cigarette in his fingers and took a drag every few seconds.

"Hi," Katara said. The smoke drifted up her nostrils and made her cough. "Jet, do you have to do that around me?" she complained.

"No," he said, blowing the smoke in her direction. "I just love messin' with ya."

Sokka and Jet laughed whilst Katara huffed. "Yeah, Sokka," Jet said. "I heard something off my dad; he told me that some blind girl is coming to the school today."

"So?"

"She doesn't need a stick, or anything," Jet explained. "She can, more or less, see, but she forms pictures in her head from the vibrations, or some shit like that. The show she was on a while back said she's a medical mystery." He laughed. "Anyway, first day of high school Katara, you nervous?"

"No," Katara lied.

"Yeah, yeah sure," Jet teased, leaving his cigarette in his mouth like he always did. "No problem at all."

"I'm not bothered Jet," Katara protested, not wanted to look weak in front of Sokka's friends. "You're right, no problem at all." Jet and Sokka just nodded to each-other. "Anyway," she said, changing the subject. "Who's the blind girl?"

"I think her name was Toph," Jet said, spitting out the end of the cigarette, finished. "Can't remember her second name. It's going to be weird though, a blind girl at school. Dad said that her eyes look normal, just green, but they stay looking at one spot and she doesn't look at you when she is talking," Jet explained as if he, and his dad, were experts in the field. "He also said she has been kicked out of three schools."

"Three," Katara repeated, interested.

"How does your dad know all of this, Jet?" Sokka asked.

"My uncle knows Mr. Richards, he told my dad," Jet explained.

Sokka laughed. "Anyway, where do we need to go for the sophomore briefing with our time tables?" he asked.

"No idea."

Katara reached into her bag and pulled out a piece of paper. "You need to go to "A" block," she told her. She had got her class schedule off the internet which had included the briefs for each year. Katara enjoyed knowing and planning things in the future, made her feel slightly more comfortable going to high school.

"You downloaded it, didn't you," Sokka said, snatching it off her.

"Hey!" she complained.

[AT]

Aang leaned through the door into the hallway, looking for the A block. The school was filing in to each of the four grades in four blocks. Aang, to, had downloaded the plan for the day. He knew that he needed to get to the "A" block, but the problem was that he had no idea where the "A" block was.

Aang stared down the hall and saw a group of kids sitting on the floor. They were dressed in black and wearing a small amount of makeup on their face. Aang walked over. "Excuse me," he said. "Do you know where "A" block is?"

The boy with speakers sitting on his lap looked up at Aang as if he had something growing on his face. After a second, he shook his head. "Piss off, squirt," he said. The three other, though similarly dressed, students laughed and got back to their music. Aang, who had been expecting a somewhat less hostile answer, remained still for a moment.

"Didn't you hear him?" the girl next to him asked. "He said, piss off!"

Aang stepped away, walking into an empty hall. "What's with people in this school?" he asked himself, aloud. He wished he had brought his headphones with him, it would have kept him company as he was starting to feel a little isolated and alone. The building was quite cold. Aang shut his eyes, trying to get a bit of feeling back to his legs.

Aang then took a step backwards, turning to go to the bathroom beside him when he collided with something. Aang sighed, he was going to get beaten up, he knew it. "What are you doing?" a voice asked, sounding irate. Aang turned, expecting the girl from earlier, the goth girl.

However, when he turned, he saw quite a short girl who looked his age. She had black hair which was curly and hung down to her shoulders. She had green eyes which matched her trousers and a white, loose, long sleeve top. "Sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going," Aang said.

The girl wasn't really looking at him, but oddly looking toward a wall. "Yeah, I wasn't concentrating," she said, after a moment of thought as if a lot of was needed to say that.

"Are you a freshman?" Aang asked. Finally, he thought, maybe a little good luck. Guatsu would kill me if I was late on the first day and got detention.

"Yeah," she said, still looking oddly to the left of me. "Why?"

"Well, we're meant to go to "A" block, but I have no idea where it is," he laughed, uneasily, putting his hand up behind his head. "Do you?"

"Yeah," she said. "I do," she paused. "Want me to lead you there, twinkle toes?"

"Yes please," Aang said, then paused. What did she just call me? He thought, frowning. Ah well, he continued, got to make do, I have to get to this meeting. "By the way, my name's Aang, what's yours?"

"Toph," she said, obviously not one who was used to introductions. "Err," she said. "It's nice to meet you." Aang got the feeling that she said it with some difficulty. "Come on then, twinkle toes."

"Ok then," Aang said. "Thanks Toph." Aang paused. Fine then, he thought, I'm going to ask it. "Toph," he said, as they walked down the halls with meaning, Toph obviously knew exactly where she was going. "Why did you call me twinkle toes?" in as non threatening voice as he could, he didn't want to offend her. He never wanted to offend people, but this could be his first friend and he wanted to get on her good side.

"Oh that," she sniggered. "You walk really quietly, barely any vibration at all."

"Do I?" he asked, a little surprised.

"Do you do martial arts?" she asked.

"Yeah," he laughed. "That must be why; I have done it since I was seven?"

"Cool," Toph said. Aang and Toph step outside and Aang saw a large, separate building. A large door was open and students, all about the same height as Aang and Toph, walking in. "That's it," Toph gestured to the building. "Come on then, or we're going to be late."

Aang looked into the crowd. Though the kids were all similar heights, they were all different shapes and stuck out. Aang had never seen such a strange group of people, some looked nerdy, tough, sporty, gothic, and violent or members of gangs. "Don't worry about it," Toph comforted.

"What?" Aang asked. "Don't worry about what?"

She shook her head. "Don't worry about it," she carried on ahead of him. "Let's go then, do you realise how slow you are?"

Aang laughed and followed her into the building. As she went through the door he realised something strange; Toph wasn't wearing any shoes. Aang was about to ask her about it, but she couldn't hear him; the crowds were too loud. Aang followed Toph into an auditorium with towering seats above a centre stage; with several chairs and a large projector screen. Aang and Toph found a seat on the fifth layer up and sat down. "Yay," Toph muttered sarcastically. "I love these."

"You don't like assemblies?"

"I don't like school," Toph told him, planting her feet firmly on the group. Aang still noticed that she wasn't looking at him when she was talking. "Why?" she asked. "Do you?"

"Never been," Aang replied.

"To an assembly?" Toph said, slightly bemused. "Wow, the school you went to before must have been great. At the schools I went to had them every week, it almost killed me!"

"No, I've never been to school," Aang explained.

"Never?"

"Nope."

"Lucky bastard," Toph smirked. "Why not, you were homeschooled, right?"

"Yeah," Aang said. "My family used to live on a farm, so my dad taught me every day. I've always wanted to go to school."

"Why?" Toph said. "It isn't anything like television."

"No," Aang said. "I just wanted to see what it was like, you know?"

"You're going to wish that you had stayed back on the farm soon, twinkle toes," Toph explained, laughing quietly. "I've been forced to go to school ever since I was five, and I have hated it, every day."

"That's a bummer," Aang muttered, a little discouraged.

Aang looked down to the rows of heads in front of him, noticing one that he saw earlier today. It was the brown haired girl, she was sitting in between two girls groups and looked out of place. On her right, were pretty, blonde girls, who were chatting (but not to her) and on the other side a group of shaved head Mexicans, all wearing the same colour top. The girl looked very out of place and alone, and Aang felt sad for her.

The head teacher walked on to the stage. "Good morning everyone," he said. He was a fat man, with long curly hair that was combed back. He had a suit on, a blue one, and looked a little too well prepared today, like his suit was too stiff and tight. "I said good morning!" he shouted. The school fell quiet, instantly. Aang had not expected him to be able to change to being so, well, terrifying in an instant. Go figure, he thought.

"I'm happy to welcome you all to the New Year at your new school," he said, clearing his throat at the end of the sentence. "I hope, and the rest of the school hope, that you have much success over the coming year, with huge improvements in all of your grades, studies and behaviour."

"Oh brother," Toph muttered from beside Aang and leaned her head back on the chair.

"Yes," he continued, "I hope it's a good year for each and every one of you." He paused, looking around the room. His gaze stopped on Aang and Toph and Aang felt himself leaning back in his chair. "We also have a very special student with us today," he said.

"Fuck off," Toph said, eyes going wide and leaning forward in her chair. "He's not going to announce it, is he?"

"What is it?" Aang asked, noticing her tone.

Toph just waved his question away. "She is very special indeed. She has been blind since birth but still retains a perfect score in almost every subject," he paused. "That's not the most incredible fact, she can feel vibrations in the floor and create an image in her head of everything around her. If you meet her, treat her with respect. Her name is Toph Bei-Fong, and I have very high hopes for her. We're glad to have her at our school."

The grade started murmuring and looking around. "Toph Bei-Fong," Aang heard one person saying. "Where is she."

Aang looked to her side and saw Toph sinking back into her seat. "Toph," Aang said. "You're blind?"

Toph just smiled faintly and put her finger on her lips.

End of Chapter 1


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